"There'll be a ball, and you'll see the belle of the province.

Worth seeing, really."

"Not in my line," Vronsky answered. He liked that English

phrase. But he smiled, and promised to come.

Before they rose from the table, when all of them were smoking,

Vronsky's valet went up to him with a letter on a tray.

"From Vozdvizhenskoe by special messenger," he said with a

significant expression.

"Astonishing! how like he is to the deputy prosecutor

Sventitsky," said one of the guests in French of the valet, while

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Vronsky, frowning, read the letter.

The letter was from Anna. Before he read the letter, he knew its

contents. Expecting the elections to be over in five days, he

had promised to be back on Friday. Today was Saturday, and he

knew that the letter contained reproaches for not being back at

the time fixed. The letter he had sent the previous evening had

probably not reached her yet.

The letter was what he had expected, but the form of it was

unexpected, and particularly disagreeable to him. "Annie is very

ill, the doctor says it may be inflammation. I am losing my

head all alone. Princess Varvara is no help, but a hindrance. I

expected you the day before yesterday, and yesterday, and now I

am sending to find out where you are and what you are doing. I

wanted to come myself, but thought better of it, knowing you

would dislike it. Send some answer, that I may know what to

do."

The child ill, yet she had thought of coming herself. Their

daughter ill, and this hostile tone.

The innocent festivities over the election, and this gloomy,

burdensome love to which he had to return struck Vronsky by their

contrast. But he had to go, and by the first train that night he

set off home.




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